Eighth+Welsh+2

="Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."=

The 8th Amendment was proposed on September 25, 1789, along with 11 other amendments. On December 15, 1791 10 of the 12 amendments were ratified. They make up the Bill Of Rights.
 * //When was it p//****//roposed/passed?//**

//**Why was it created?**// The 8th Amendment was created to prevent the government from being unfair to criminals. Often the British would unfairly punish someone based on whether or not they were loyal to the king. If a patriot and a loyalist were guilty of the same crime the patriot would be punished more severely.

//**What are some issues with the 8th Amendment?**//
 * Many believe that the death penalty is unconstitutional while other believe it should be allowed.
 * Some believe that the government favors some, even with the amendment.
 * The mentally unhealthy cannot be sentenced to death, which raises complaints and problems.
 * Many believe that "cruel and unusual" is too broad of a statement and that what others consider cruel others may consider fair.

//**What are some forbidden punishments?**// torture, removal or citizenship, crimes based on illnesses cannot be punished, drawing and quatering, burning alive, public disecting and disemboweling

//**Facts**//
 * The Excessive Fines Clause limits the amount that state and federal governments may fine a person for their crime.
 * Bail is the amount of money a defendant pay as a security for his or her appearance in trial
 * The defendant is able to retrieve his bail in the conclusion of the trial
 * If the defendant fails to go to the trial, he or she forfeits his or her pledge to appear in court
 * The U.S. Supreme Court are allowed to permit lower courts to deny bail for defendants who would create dangerous risks to the community if released
 * The U.S. Supreme Court ruled death penalties that are inhumane, or shocking to people are considered to be cruel and unusual can be appealed or overturned
 * The purpose of the amendment is to enforce presumption of innocence until guilt is charged

//**What are some clauses*?**// (* a clause is a distinct article in a legal written document.)
 * __Excessive Bail Clause:__ stops the government from setting bail at an unfairly high amount. ||
 * __Excessive Fines Clause:__ stops government from setting fines unnecessarily high. ||
 * __Cruel & Unusual Punishments Clause:__ bans the government from giving punishments that are considered "cruel and unusual." Many oppose and think the government must remember to keep the persons crime in mind. ||


 * //What are the levels of punishment?//**
 * __Fines:__ a sum of money one has to pay to another as punishment for a crime ||
 * __Corporal Punishment:__ deals with physically punishing someone. has largely been removed from U.S. government. People used to whip or even cut of peoples ears. ||
 * __Incarceration:__ imprisonment. Most common form of punishment.People are put in jail for a certain amount of time depending on how serious their crime was. ||
 * __Capital Punishment:__ Death Penalty. A person convicted of a capital crime may be sentenced to death. such as certain murder & drug crimes. ||
 * __Pretrial Incarceration:__people who are kept in jail before their trial begins. They are often offered a bail to leave jail until their trial.The bail serves as a promise not to run away. ||



//**Some opinions?**// Many people agree that some punishments trails, or bails are unfair or inhumane. Many people usually go to jail for a crime that they did not commit. Then years later if they are luckily they will be set free and they will find the real person who committed the crime. A lot of times on the news you might hear of people who were found guilty for a crime that they did not do. Or you might hear that a person was released for a crime they did not do after they served in needed time in jail when they did not do anything wrong. Many cases like this has happened or is happening right now. The 8th Amendment protects some punishments. Some people think that no matter how horrible the crime is that the person should not receive an inhumane punishment. For example being killed or suffering. While others think that they should suffer if they did something bad enough. The 8th Amendments causes many rival and agreements and also a lot of disagreements and more.

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Current Event: __Civil Rights Attorney Denied Bail During Appeal__ http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2008/01/03/attorney_denied_bail/ Stephen Yagman a big civil rights attorney was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison. The 63 year old was charged with bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering. He is scheduled to begin his sentence later in January.

Yagman has had many very successful law suits including ones against many police departments, now the government is fighting back. During his appeal Yagman asked to stay on free bail until his sentence begins. His request was denied on Wednesday, by a federal judge in L.A.

The government says that Yagman didnt pay over $100,000 in federal taxes. He denies these accusations. He believes that "“I have always believed that I had painted a target on my own back due to the types of cases that I handled, and that heavy artillery would be used,” The U.S. Attorney’s Office completely dismissed this



My opinion on Yagman`s case is that although it is unfair that he be denied bail, he did bring it upon himself. I think that he shouldn't have been denied bail and that the government might be striking back because of his past law suits with the government.

Current event: __What is at stake in lethal injection arguements__ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17900400

The method of lethal injection was developed in Oklahoma and first used in 1977. There is an agreement between executioners and the Supreme Court that the methods of death penalties are inhumane. This problem was brought up from previous cases of Kentucky lawsuits. Lawyers of the defendants argued that the defendants' death penalties violate the Eighth Amendment. They also said that putting animals to death are more simpler and less inhumane. The high court then began to pay more attention on past executions.

To execute the people charged with the death penalty of lethal injection, a series of injections are put in to the body. First, the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental that makes the person unconscious. The next step is being injected with pancuronium bromide that stops the breathing muscles. The last step is being injected with potassium chloride which stops the heart. 36 states use this method.

The death penalty opponents are against the method of lethal injections because it poses pain and suffering. Medical doctors say that if the inmate is not properly anesthetized or numbed, it can lead to pain in the third injection. The inmate would feel extreme pain and like their veins are on fire.

My opinion on the death penalty and killing people in jail. Is i dont think that its right. What if someone is charged for killing around 20 people and they get killed. ,But the police are not 100 percent sure they did it. Then that means that an innocent person got killed for something they did not do. If someone did something not really bad or they are not 100 percent sure that they did do the crime. Then i dont think that they should get killed just serve there time in jail. ,But if someone did something really really bad like for example kill almost 200 people on purpose i think they should suffer for what they did because all of the other innocent peole who they killed had to suffer and so did the families or friends that know the peole or person who was killed also have to be very sad. They should have the prisoners maybe pick what death penalty they want unless they did something so bad.How whould you feel if one person that you loved was killed? You would probably hate the person who killed them. ,But i dont think that peole who are charged with a crime should get killed unless the police are positve it was them. Or maybe they could not use the injection way to kill the prisoner. But i do think the Lethal injection is a terrible way to kill a person. That is my oipoin on the death penalties that peolpe use today.



Larn Luong who is 37 years old man from Batre Alabama confessed to killiong his four chidren. After a fight with his wife he took his children 4 month old Danny 1 year old Lindsay 2 year old Hannah and 3 year old Ryan to Dauphin Island Bridge with a span that reaches 80 feet and tossed all 4 children over the Bridge into the cold freezing water below. He is being charged with 4 counts of captial murder and if convicted faces life in prison. In my opinion is that the 8th Amendment is protecting him because he commited this crime in a different country he most likely would have been killed for this crime becuase other countries do not have the 8th Amendment to protcect them.